June 13, 2009

Y chromosomes of Turks from Antalya

Of interest the presence of R1*(R1a, R1b) at a frequency of 6.6%. Unfortunately the presence of haplogroups likely to have been introduced to Turkey from Central Asia was not directly measured, although BR*(xD2,E,F) is a good candidate for a haplogroup C stand-in.

Rom J Leg Med 17 (1) 59 – 68 (2009)

Y-SNP haplogroups in the Antalya population in Turkish Republic

Timur Serdar, Demircin Sema

Abstract

SNPs are known to be the most abundant source of sequence variation in the humangenome. The SNPs in the NRY (non-recombining Y-chromosome) region which passes from father to son as unchanged haplotype-blocks escaping recombination, provides important advantages in the investigations of sexual assault crimes, in the cases of parentage testing especially if the mother or alleged father is unavailable for testing and in the evolutionary studies. The aim of this study, was to determine the frequencies of Y SNP markers and the haplogroups, in order to define the Y-chromosome SNP markers which are polymorphic, have high discrimination power and can be used in forensic investigations in the Antalya population. For each of 75 unrelated males from Antalya, 35 different Y-SNP markers were amplified in a single reaction using multiplex minisequencing method. In the study, 18 markers of them were found to be polymorphic. The most frequent YSNP markers with mutations were M139 (100%), SRY10831/SRY1532 (92%), M89 (85.3%), M213 (85.3%), M9 (44%), 92R7 (30.6%), 12F2 (30.6%), M45 (29.3%), M172 (26.6%) and M173 (22.6%). The Y-chromosome haplogroups of Antalya population were defined by these 18 Y-SNP polymorphic loci and the frequencies and the distribution of haplogroups were determined. J2*(xJ2F2) (26.6%), K*(xN3,O,P) (13.3%), E3b (9.3%), F*(xH,I,J,K) (8%), R1a1*(xR1a1b) (8%), R1b*(xR1b1, R1b6, R1b8) (8%), P*(xQ3a,R1) (8%) haplogroups were identified as the most abundant in Antalya population. These haplogroups are reported as widespread also in European and neighboring Near Eastern populations.

8 comments:

Antalya is one of the few provinces of Turkey where Yoruks (nomadic Turks) concentrate. But overwhelming majority of its current urban population is from all corners of Turkey and also from the Balkan immigrants. Only in the countryside Yoruks have a significant population rate. I wonder their exact criteria in choosing the samples.

It is on the Mediterranean and flanked by mountains. That implies the easiest way to that part of Turkey is by sea, and also implies a mixed Eurasian heritage being accessible by sea. I would say onur that the men chosen were from the main city and not for instance from Kas.

Genetic studies are very interesting but prove very little. The results are only applicable to that small population of 75 and cannot even be extrapolated to the whole of Antalya. It is interesting just the same.

The biases of the geneticists involved are easily seen in those studies. With Iberian populations it is to prove or disprove, depending on the bias, the closeness of Iberian men or people to North Africans and sub Saharan Africans. Same with Italians of southern vintage. Those studies are always tainted by latent racism.

In this study it is telling that J-M267 was not assayed on its own. J1 is about 9% of the Turkish male population, as gathered from more extensive studies of the populations from the whole of Turkey. In this study, the J1 equivalent used is J*(xJ2). If this was an unbiased study, J1 and the various haplogroups found in East Asians and Africans would be tested fully. This study used approximations. Basically the study is trying to prove the Europeanness of Turkish men from Antalya and minimumising the extent of Asian or African admixture in Turks. Even the level of Near Eastern admixture is minimised by using comparisons with other populations which are themselves biased. Europeans like Danes have haplogroup J2, it may be quite a small percentage but it is present in ethnic Danish men.

The study is interesting as I have said but flawed by racial bias and taint as most of those studies are.

K*: 13.3% (much can be T and L but some maybe not)F*: 8% - what!? That's surely the highest F(xH,I,J,K) anywhere. What is it? F4? IJ*? Some other F or truly private F lineages?P*: 8% - another notable figure. Maybe it's all R2 + Q2 but we'd like to know. E3b1*: 5.3% (which clades?)BR*: 4% (probably all C but uncertain)J*: 4% (probably all J1, yes, but there's some JT* in the Western Mediterranean, so the doubt is there)

On the 14th of this month right after reading Ponto's comment, I sent an e-mail to one of the authors of this paper in which I expressed Mr. Pontikos', Ponto's and my own objections about the paper in Turkish. It's been a week now and still they haven't responded to my e-mail, just as I guessed.

I wrote my now deleted comment right after sending that e-mail. In it I mentioned my sending of the e-mail, as in this comment. But immediately after publishing that comment, I thought that the authors wouldn't have attempted to respond to my e-mail if they read my that comment, because they would have known that I would tell you about the details of their response. So a few minutes after publishing that comment, I decided to delete it and did so. But I knew from the beginning that they wouldn't respond to my e-mail even without such a comment. Unfortunately I've turned out to be right.

How did I know they wouldn't respond? Because they must be knowing that they have no excuse for publishing such a biased and deficient paper. So they prefer to close their ears to criticism. But doing so doesn't change the fact that their paper is biased and deficient.

I recently saw an hour-long "White Slavery in Eastern Europe" TV documentary report [PBS US public television Frontline, if my memory serves] that had Antalya as the center for a thriving sex trade for girls abducted from the Ukraine, Moldava, and a couple of other rather poor Eastern European countries. In the program, a Ukrainian spouse came to Antalya to seek out his abducted wife as I recall and the narrators commented on how Antalya was a sort of mini-Bangkok sex entrepot situated in western Asia.

I doubt if this would have influenced the sample, but there would also perhaps been remainders of the original Greek population which settled the city in Classical times, would there not? And as a thriving port, [at least thus described in the TV documentary], there might be a rather polyglot & varied gene pool available to the researchers.

The real native settled Antalyan Turkish population looks pretty Greek to me. Not just their look, but also their Turkish accent resembles that of Greeks. But even the Yoruks (nomadic Turks) of Antalya may have significant Greek origin, as Antalya was pretty populated during the Greek and even pre-Greek administrations.

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